Owen: objecting to rebirth

Saturday, April 13, 2019
Meditation:
    Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
    —John 1:12-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Let them pretend what they please, the true reason why any despise the new birth is because they hate a new life. He that cannot endure to live to God will as little endure to hear of being born of God.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), III.1 in A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. I-V [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. III, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 216 (see the book)
    See also John 1:12-13; Ps. 51:5; John 3:5,8,36; Rom. 3:19; 5:15-18; Eph. 2:3; Tit. 3:3-4; 1 Pet. 1:3; 1 John 3:9; 5:1-4,18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You love and protect the new man from sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Trueblood: contents of the church

Friday, April 12, 2019
Meditation:
    While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
    On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
    —Matthew 9:10-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The more we study the early Church, the more we realize that it was a society of ministers. About the only similarity between the Church at Corinth and a contemporary congregation, either Roman Catholic or Protestant, is that both are marked, to a great degree, by the presence of sinners.
    ... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Incendiary Fellowship, New York: Harper, 1967, p. 39 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 9:12-13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32; Rom. 5:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I must be counted among the sinners who need Jesus. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: when the kingdom is come

Thursday, April 11, 2019
    Commemoration of George Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand, 1878
Meditation:
    Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
    —Matthew 13:45-46 (KJV)
Quotation:
    The kingdom of heaven is not come even when God’s will is our law; it is fully come when God’s will is our will.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), David Elginbrod, vol. 2 [1863], Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1871, p. 194 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 13:45-46; 12:49-50; Mark 3:35; Rom. 8:29; 12:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, transform my mind. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Law: the terrible wrath of man

Wednesday, April 10, 2019
    Feast of William Law, Priest, Mystic, 1761
    Commemoration of William of Ockham, Franciscan Friar, Philosopher, Teacher, 1347
    Commemoration of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Priest, Scientist, Visionary, 1955
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
    —John 3:36 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is no wrath that stands between God and us, but what is awakened in the dark fire of our own fallen nature; and to quench this wrath, and not His own, God gave His only begotten Son to be made man. God has no more wrath in Himself now than He had before the creation, when He had only Himself to love... And it was solely to quench this wrath, awakened in the human soul, that the blood of the Son of God was necessary; because nothing but a life and birth, derived from Him into the human soul, could change this darkened root of a self-tormenting fire into an amiable image of the Holy Trinity as it was at first created.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. V, London: G. Moreton, 1893, par. 110-112 (see the book)
    See also John 3:36; Rom. 1:18-19; 4:14-15; 5:9; Gal. 3:10; Eph. 5:6; 1 Thess. 5:9; Rev. 6:16-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your sacrifice has restored Your image in mankind. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: the narrow way

Tuesday, April 9, 2019
    Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
    —John 16:33 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There remains for us only the very narrow way, often extremely difficult to find, of living every day as though it were our last, and yet living in faith and responsibility as though there were to be a great future.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), “After Ten Years”, in A Testament to Freedom: the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Geffrey B. Kelly, F. Burton Nelson, eds., HarperCollins, 1995, p. 484 (see the book)
    See also John 16:33; Jer. 32:15; Matt. 6:34; John 14:27; Heb. 13:5-6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I have no expectations save Your promises. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Theologia Germanica: life of Christ

Monday, April 8, 2019
    Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877
Meditation:
    In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
    —Romans 6:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Since the life of Christ is every way most bitter to nature and the Self and the Me (for in the true life of Christ, the Self and the Me and nature must be forsaken and lost and die altogether), therefore in each of us, nature hath a deep horror of it.
    ... Theologia Germanica [1518], Anonymous, ascribed to Johannes de Francfordia, (1380?-1440) & Susanna Winkworth, tr., published anonymously by Martin Luther, ch. XX (see the book)
    See also Rom. 6:11; John 12:24; Rom. 6:5-7; Col. 3:9-10
Quiet time reflection:
    You are life, Lord. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: the sins that crucified Christ

Sunday, April 7, 2019
Meditation:
    “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
    “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
     “Crucify him!” they shouted.
    —Mark 15:9-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Who was it that set up the Cross? Not fiends incarnate, but plain flesh and blood like us; quite ordinary men, decent and kindly souls enough, some of whom, no doubt, went to their homes that day from Calvary and took their children on their knees and loved them very genuinely. Only, they were a bit old fashioned in the make-up of their minds, had grown stiff and inelastic in their thinking, inhospitable to new notions—surely a very minor sin at worst; and some feared for their vested interests; and one, poor Pilate, had lost his temper with these impossible Jews in days gone by, and had received a curt warning from Rome that there must be no further bloodshed in Jerusalem, and here was a new trouble at the very worst of times in the whole year, with fanatics in tens of thousands come up for the Feast; and one wanted to save the world by quick-running machinery, and so put Christ into a situation where He could no longer dilly-dally but must do something vivid, dramatic, revolutionary. And the people? No need for us to bother being there at the decision between Jesus and Barabbas. He had the lined streets cheering for Him yesterday. And we have relatives to see, and messages from neighbours to deliver to their kindred. He’ll be all right; we needn’t worry to be there. Such simple and plebian sins—minds grown a trifle out of date, a little selfishness, some temper and its consequences, a bit of worldly wisdom, and an indifference that did nothing at all—these brought about the shame of mankind, and the tragedy of history, and the blot upon our annals that will not rub out. And they are all of them within your heart, and mine.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1945, p. 176 (see the book)
    See also Mark 15:9-13; Matt. 27:19-24; John 19:4-16; Acts 2:36-37; 1 Cor. 2:7-8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, forgive those offenses in me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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